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AMCRAN's public seminar New Anti-Terror Laws: What they mean for Muslim communities? was held on 17 December 2006, a week after the laws were passed. We were fortunate to have Dr Ben Saul from UNSW and Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law as the guest lecturer for the seminar.
His slides as well as AMCRAN's notes from the seminar are now available.
So, would you be committing a seditious offence if you said "May God grant victory to the mujaheddin in Iraq"? Or "Howard is a war criminal for invading Iraq and his government should be overturned by any means possible"?
At the seminar, Dr Saul firstly discussed the controversy surrounding the introduction of the anti-terror laws, and then gave a brief overview of what the new laws are, including the new sedition offences, the preventative detention and control orders, and "advocating terrorism" as a new ground for proscription. Dr Saul also went through some examples of potentially seiditious comments, including:
- “May God grant victory to the mujaheddin in Iraq”
- “Howard is a war criminal for invading Iraq and his government should be
overturned by any means possible”
- “Australia should be an Islamic State and Muslims must wage jihad”
- “No victory for Islam’s brothers and sisters can be stopped by John Howard”
Dr Saul's slides for the seminar are now available.
AMCRAN volunteer Mona Darwiche also diligently made exhaustive notes of the
seminar and the Q and A session. Her notes provide more detailed
commentary to Dr Saul's slides above.
In addition, AMCRAN has produced a brief 2-page outline of the laws that you
could use to distribute to your friends and networks. The outline of the latest anti-terror laws as introduced by the Anti-Terrorism Act (No. 2) 2005 is a useful summary of the new laws with a focus on the likely impact on the Muslim community.
Finally, for a complete picture of the anti-terror laws in Australia, the
above slides and notes should be read together with the third edition of
Anti-Terrorism Laws: ASIO, the Police and You.
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